Westrom launches campaign for 7th District

Republican  state Sen. Torrey Westrom has launched a bid to take on 12-term incumbent DFL Rep. Collin Peterson in Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District.

Westrom made stops in Moorhead and his hometown of Elbow Lake on Thursday to announce the campaign, which he had been mulling for weeks. National Republicans have been eager to field a strong candidate to run against Peterson, who they say is vulnerable in 2014 over the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

“As Minnesota families are crushed by burdensome regulations and overreaching government policies like ObamaCare, it’s time Minnesotans had someone they could count on to be part of the solution in Washington, DC,” Westrom said in a release. “Washington politicians are out of step with the priorities of Minnesotans and I’m running for Congress because I understand how that disconnect is bankrupting our future.”

Westrom was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1997 before winning a seat in the Senate last fall. He and his wife, Anna, are small business owners and live in Elbow Lake with their three children.

Westrom is the first to announce a campaign to take on Peterson, a congressional Democrat who has managed to hold on to the western Minnesota congressional seat for decades despite a slight GOP tilt in presidential races.